The most high profile of the three is, of course, Latimer. He caused a stir with an impressive pro day — registering a forty yard dash in the 4.39-4.43 range and recording a 39 inch vertical. He’s since started to appear in multiple first round mock drafts.

Latimer’s virtually taking a tour of the NFL before next months draft — visiting with a whole host of teams. He didn’t do any drills at the combine or his pro day due to a foot injury. This is the first chance anyone gets to really test him.

Although how much of a challenge running routes in shorts will be for such a talented athlete is open to interpretation. Here’s the bottom line with Latimer — he run blocks better than any other receiver in the class, he has incredibly strong and reliable hands and he’s a freakish ‘basketball player’ athlete.

On tape he does it all — drives defenders off the ball in the run game, high points the football, makes spectacular grabs, runs downfield and takes the top off a defense. He even has some special teams involvement — although funnily enough I think he can show a little more intensity in that area given the way he plays on offense.

If he doesn’t go in the first round, I think it’ll be an upset. There’s simply too much upside on offer. He’d be a terrific pick for Seattle at #32.

Day One: Had several nice plays throughout the day. Stomped on a tight end during blocking drills then showed a lot of discipline throughout the rest of the day.

Day Two: Had a “WOW” sort of day. Dominant during blitz drills, showed a lot of skill in pursuit and held his own in coverage. Just a lot to like about his game.

Day Three: Not as effective as yesterday yet played well in all areas. Leaves Senior Bowl practice as a winner.

When I spent a bit of time during the 2013 season watching UCLA to monitor Anthony Barr’s progress — I kept being drawn to Zumwalt. I’m not sure he’s the type of player who will ever develop into a bona fide starter in the NFL — but he’ll be a special teams demon. And hey, I wouldn’t rule out a starting role one day. If it doesn’t happen, it won’t be due to a lack of effort or intensity.

We all know Seattle wants competitive, fiery individuals. That’s Zumwalt. He puts his body on line time and time again. He seems like the type of guy who’s up for any challenge — a dependable tone-setter.

According to Scott Enyeart, he’s also a player Seattle knows all about:

He’s one to keep an eye on in the later rounds or even UDFA. Enyeart also points out he had some injury/concussion issues at UCLA and that could hamper his stock.

And then there’s Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, or ‘LDT’ as the draft community has started to call him. Unsurprisingly there’s not a great deal of McGill University tape available on the internet, but I did manage to find some footage from his pro day:

He’s a medical student from Canada who practised once a week with his team in college. So you’re talking about a guy who’s raw and relatively new to the game. He ran a 4.94-5.08 forty at his pro day, had a 32 inch vertical, a 9.5 in the broad jump and managed 34 reps on the bench press. He’s 6-5 and 320lbs. He also ran a 7.3 three cone and a 4.59 in the short shuttle. Those are all impressive numbers.

Some scouts are grading him in the third or fourth round. Nolan Nawrocki highlights LDT’s, “Stout anchor in pass protection. Violent shock in his punch. Plays with a nasty temperament and seeks to bury defenders into the ground. Aggressive run blocker — runs his feet on contact and plays beyond the whistle.”

Nawrocki also says he can learn to take better angles in pass protection and improve his recovery speed. Clearly there’s something to work with here — but where do you take the guy with so little football experience? Out of all of today’s three visits — LDT’s might be the most important.

Today was the first chance I’ve had to watch Turner. I only watched one game (vs Kansas State) but wanted to put a few initial thoughts out there.

Right off the bat you can can tell he’s a strong, combative run blocker. There were several occasions where he drove his man downfield while the rest of the line stalled. When you’re watching a small school prospect you want to see flashes of quality where they just stand out. Turner on numerous occasions looked to be playing at a different level to the rest of his line. That’s to be expected if he’s going to play in the NFL.

I was actually surprised that he only managed 25 reps on the bench press at the combine — because he looks very powerful on tape. Particularly with his initial punch. Maybe it’s a work-out thing coming from a small school? Either way, when I went back to the combine notes I expected to see an extra ten reps.

However, I also saw some key issues that I think will limit his stock.

When I started to write about Joel Bitonio and the Seahawks — people asked what was the difference between Bitonio and Turner. On this evidence, quite a lot. As a pass protector Turner’s technique leaves a lot to be desired. His footwork is all over the place and his kick slide looks clumsy and sluggish. His pad level is inconsistent and too often he overextends and bends at the waist.

He wasn’t exposed against a very average looking Kansas State pass rush. But I’m concerned at the next level he’s going to really struggle against even solid speed rushers. Anyone with a nice get off and a counter will cause him problems.

Bitonio is such a smooth operator in comparison. He glides into pass pro, makes blocking the edge look comfortable and he’s shown genuine ability to shut down leading college edge rushers such as Anthony Barr and the Florida State defensive line. Technically he’s very sound and it compliments the rare athletic potential he showed at the combine.

Often when he comes up against speed he has the ability to just guide the DE/LB out of the play. When he faces a dip inside or counter he can handle it. He doesn’t struggle against the bull rush. Turner isn’t going to be able to set the edge moving like he does in the Kansas State tape. In fact he’s going to watch people run past him, straight into the quarterback.

Comparisons have been made athletically between the two players, but Bitonio had a better broad jump, 10-yard split, forty time and vertical at the combine. Turner had far from a poor work out in Indianapolis — but Bitonio had an explosive performance. So he’s a superior athlete with less of a learning curve from a technique point of view. That’s why, in my eyes, he’ll be a first round pick and Turner won’t be anywhere near that type of grade.

Both players ultimately might end up at guard. And both could end up being very accomplished players at that position. Turner’s footwork will be less of an issue inside and he has the potential to develop into a very good run blocking interior lineman. As long as he isn’t trying to set the edge, he can prosper.

Out of the two — Bitonio has the greater potential to have a shot at playing right tackle and he could act as a backup left tackle. For me, Turner’s a pure guard.

This is the only seahawks site I go to anymore. Rob is amazing and the comments by most are thoughtful, respectful, and worth reading. I used to have about 5 sites I would frequent but the comments sections (and twitter) have made all that unnecessary. Thanks to all the readers and commenters that keep this place entertaining without going over the top and thanks again to Rob for putting together the best seahawks site on the web.

Exactly…. it is not only the insights of Rob and our fellow bloggers, but the civil tone of the comments, the remarkable lack of personal insults, etc, that have ruined so many other blogs, that makes this place special.

100% agree with you. I was in limbo for so long trying different sites and blogs, but none of them really stuck, partially because I didn’t like what I was reading (or felt it redundant and not insightful), but also because there wasn’t really much of a community. Seahawks Draft Blog is the absolute killer combo of amazing articles by Rob that I think really push us as Seahawk fans as well as an amazing community of people with varying opinions, but the ability to have healthy debate of our analysis.

The healthy debate part is awesome here as is the content that Rob puts forth. But ultimately I love this sight and community because one day bigDhawk might not agree on my opinions and well have a good debate but then the next article we both agree. Same goes for everyone else here. The language we all use is also great. Not that I’m against using swear words by any means, I did 4 years in the marines and I farm so swearing is a natural for me but the responses I read on other sights disgusts me. Love the blog and recommend it to all!

Tough one. Bitonio has great versatility and Latimer has a very low floor. I’d have to go with the higher ceiling prospect in Bitonio. He could be a 12 year starter at guard. Maybe even RT. He could play at any OL position except C.

My gut response is Bitonio as right tackle. We have to protect Russell Wilson and we need to be able to run the ball with either side of the line. As long as we can run the ball the passing attack will also be successful.

Latimer sounds great but a little too high risk/high reward to take at #32 because of his lower floor. So I’d have to agree with everyone else here and nab Bitonio in a heartbeat. He sounds like he’s got the potential to be an anchor on the offensive line at a low cost for the next half decade. For an offensive lineman polished enough to be a serviceable full time starter from day one, I’m sure a capologist could place a price on it but it wouldn’t be cheap. The guy is a stud and just playing the probabilities there’d be a higher likelihood of landing a first round WR prospect at #64 than an offensive lineman.

Plus, getting better help for Wilson should be the #1 goal in this draft before anything else.

Man its tough. I will say this though, with how good this draft seems to be its a wonderful year to be picking last as champs. We will likely get the same quality of player at 32 as a team will be in the late teens or early twenties. My list of picks that I would be happy with which are potentially going to be available at 32 is probably about 15-20 players long. That is a good sign.

I’ll take the versatile lineman who can easily take over Paul McQuinstan spot or outright take over Breno spot. We run the ball more than we pass and opening up holes will open up the pass. Joel Bitnio

The answer to the Bitonio/Latimer question goes beyond the players. The answer to this question is the answer to the Carp/Bowie/Bailey question.

Carp may finally enter a year with full health and a full offseason to prepare. Bowie and Bailey start thier 2nd year and should make the big jump. If the team is really happy with those guys. If they feel that Bowie is thier starter at RT and Bailey can backup everyone then Bitonio as a backup presents less value then a contributing WR. The 4th receiver gets playing time, the rookie 7th OL player is 2 injuries away from actually playing.

If they are not that sure about those guys then Bitonio first and WR will wait.

When you watch the great tapes on Latimer try to imagine what the highlight film on Baldwin or Kearse will look like playing against NFL defenses. Suddenly Latimer looks like a 4th receiver at best.

First I think he fills more of a “right now” need. As in he can come in as a rookie and start on our line and produce (in my opinion). Lattimer is a great talent, but I don’t see him really have a large role in our offense his rookie year. I think he would be fighting for that 3rd WR spot with Kearse, Lockette (??), and possibly even Sidney Rice. Kearse has proven he can do it in the pros, so I think it’s likely that Lattimer is our 4th guy. That doesn’t mean he won’t have any impact because he definitely brings something unique to the table, but he won’t be getting a lot of targets.

Also, Bitonio seems like more of a sure thing to me, but also with a higher ceiling. Combine that with what I think is more of a “right now” need, I think I’d have to go Bitonio.

Big /cheers for the Billy Turner love. The KSU video is nice, but if you have time, Rob, watch Billy’s video against Coastal Carolina from 2013 and you’ll see why he’s my boy. I agree his position in the NFL is at guard, LG specifically, and not tackle. But he could be Hutch 2.0. I’ve been tooting Latimer’s horn almost as hard as Turner’s for a while now, and Latimer at 32 with Turner at 64 would have me geeked.

wh0a, Hutch 2.0? Hutch played D1 and was the best guard prospect to come out of the draft in years when Holmgren selected him in the mid first. Turner, not so much. He could have a good career but I don’t think anyone would say he has a Hutch-like ceiling. You don’t think you’re going a weee bit overboard there? 😉

Meanwhile, reading those pro day notes about Turner really doesn’t inspire. No way Hutch had anything remotely like those types of evaluations coming out of college.

lol. 2nd coming of Hutch? With a build up like that I was sort of expecting to watch a guy road grading against the Carolina Gamecocks, not the college football little leagues. I think there are probably a lot of D1 guards that could look like the 2nd coming of Hutch if they played FCS, but if they had at all a similar ceiling they wouldn’t be playing in that league in the first place.

Here’s a challenge, name the last all-pro guard that played strictly FCS ball.

championship off-season! RW rec’d award from NCU. During the 15 minute interview, he heaped tremendous praise on Sweezy and expects him to work relentlessly while attaining greatness. Towards the end, he said he was flying to CA the following day to work out with his receivers. I predict our O is Top 5!

Hey, guys. I’m not sure what we need to replace with Golden gone, but are we looking for an X receiver or what? Would Percy play X, mostly, forcing the corner off to respect his speed? I know we’ll want to move him around, so maybe we’ll put him at Y so he can motion. But we’ll either need someone with speed, or someone who can beat press to play the X position. I don’t believe in Baldwin’s or Kearse’s ability to play on the line. Kearse is a Y and Baldwin is a slot guy.

The best lineup seems to be Kearse at X (SE), Percy at flanker and Angry Doug Baldwin in the slot. A 6-4 SE would be a huge help….. but a couple of player interviews this off season, when asked who has impressed, have said that the 6-5 Chris Matthews is the real deal. (note: Percy needs to play flanker or slot so he can go in motion and run the fly sweep)

The other day I had tweeted that I was all aboard wanting the Seahawks to draft Cody Latimer with their first pick in the draft. A few minutes later this tweet was favorited by both Cody Latimer and his aunt and was also retweeted by his aunt, who also started following me. I know its twitter and you can’t put too much stock into it but I thought it was pretty cool.

I think this Cornerback class has a lot of talent. We could see a run on Corners in the late teens of the first, or the top of the second. There are plenty of question marks and no clear-cut best corner, but there are also many options and a diverse array of coverage men. Would love to see a post about your thoughts on the top five or six. It’s a position I’ve not spent a lot of time on, I think it would be good to hear your take on some of these guys.

I agree there appears a lot of depth at CB but I do think Gilbert is the clear cut #1 who will no doubt go top 15. IMO only Gilbert and Roby have the physical tools among the highest rated guys to become true #1 corners but Roby’s character flags make Gilbert the clear cut first CB choice off the board.

But the gap between the them really isn’t that large. I think there’s only 5 cornerbacks worthy of being drafted in the first two rounds though. After that there’s a bit of a drop off but not by much. There are a ton of 2nd tier guys that could become serviceable starters in the league or better. That could make for a lot of corners drafted in rounds 3-7.

There are a number of teams desperate for a CB, and five of them should go R1 (Gilbert, Dennard, Roby, Fuller and Verrett), plus the two safeties (HaHa C-D and Pryor), so if these 7 DBs go R1, then someone who is a mid-R1 talent (Bitonio, Lattimer, Benjamin, Shazier) will be there at #32. The comments above are correct…. the Seahawks are going to land someone at #32 who is probably ranked very high on their board, someone they would just have easily picked at #20.

Day 2/3 CBs Jaylen Watkins and Donte Johnson are guys I like a lot. There is also this guy from USC Torin Harris who has a 41 inch vertical. His 40 time wasn’t great, but that vert and being that Petey may know him, may land him on the Seahawks either as a low rounder or UDFA.

As we all know bench press has close to zero correlation to playing strength, it’s really more an indicator of work ethic similar to the wonderlic. If bench did correlate, then Ndamukong Suh would have had 60 reps.

If evaluators really wanted to measure strength they’d test players to see where they max lift and do a series of lower body and core lifts to get the full picture- but they will never do that because of the injury risk, not to mention it would take a lot of time. Besides that, some players just play stronger than they lift. If I ever want to know how strong a player is, I watch the tape.

Agreed. It’s too many reps with too light of a weight to be all that meaningful. Guys with higher maxes can burn out quicker in these “endurance” tests, which is all it is for the lineman types, while lower max guys can sometimes go for longer.

We talk about how the 10/20 yard splits are more important for linemen than the 40 yard dash … yet benching 225 is basically like running a quarter mile for these guys.

Turner is an awesome run blocker, such a rare combination of power and nasty. I love how he will drive a guy a couple steps, then recoil for a second and drive him some more. In the run game Turner plays he’s taking a test and he wants extra credit.

He has the athleticism and “look” of an NFL tackle, though he could probably play guard too.

Turner’s power translates to pass pro with an excellent punch and anchor. Kansas State never made him sweat anything. Not sure how he could do against faster rushers but the footspeed and punch are both at high levels. Would not be hard at all to see this guy in a pro-bowl if he goes to the right team.

I wish I could tell you why coaches were yelling at him at Senior Bowl practices (I found his pass pro to be mostly impressive on his three draft breakdown videos). Like John Schneider, I never hold a bad Senior Bowl against anybody because it’s a small sample size in an unusual environment and some guys might suffer from being taken out of their schemes, etc.

You wonder a little if Turner might be another James Carpenter with that same build. Though in fairness to Turner, he does not appear to have a weight problem.

Wouldn’t be surprised at all if Seattle drafted Turner, they need a brute force run blocker worse than ever after losing losing Breno to the Jets.

Totally agree about the pass protection on his DBD video. Not sure why he bombed at the Senior bowl. Rob is probably right about the inconsistent technique but I’m sure Cable can fix that. He could be the mauler I’ve been wanting for our line.

I pretty much saw the exact same thing watching Turners games on draftbreakdown. He is a beast and I would love for the Seahawks to take him. If we can get one of Bitonio or Turner and one of the receivers we like in the first two rounds that would be nice.

Dr. Duvernay-Tardif? Laurent is medical student?? Wow, medical student and NFL. You don’t hear about medical students who went to the NFL too much. I’m sure he’ll have a unique perspective on concussion symptoms. Check out this article on him by the way:

Was looking at Bucky Brooks’ mock on NFL.com. In his scenario the Hawks take Morgan Moses at 32 while Bitonio is still on the board and ends up going in the 40s….If both of these OL are in the board at 32 who do you prefer? The length and size of Moses or the athleticism and ability to play all along the line like Bitinio?

At the pro day LDT showed him at 300 lbs. He lost 15lbs by himself, to be in a good shape. The guy is not a dumb, if a team draft him or sign him after the draft, you can be sure that you take a special raw talent.

He played three times against my team in the CIS, which is Laval University, and he was honestly not in good league for him. Too much talent, smart guy, and due to lack of players at Mcgill (you need good grades even in the football team, so less players go there) he played two positions : defensive line and offensive line.

So, I can tell you, is quick.

LDT won’t be a problem for any team, he’s got a good attitude. But YOU GONNA have to be patient with him. NFL next year is a dream, right now. Start him on the practice squad, develop him as a guard cause is quick and weighing naturally 300lbs….and you might have a beautiful surprise in the next two years.

I just forgot about my main question on Laurent Duvernay…the competition in the CIS.

I really love my university football team, Laval University in Quebec, which won 6 of the 11 last Vanier Cup (best CIS team…similar to the BCS Bowl).

In comparison to NCAA, Laval University is way better than any team in NCAA-III.

In the NCAA-II, in my mind they will be average. Not the worst, not the best.

So you will understand that NO team in the CIS football can approach NCAA-I. No way. And McGill, more than the others, cause Mcgill team was the worst team in Quebec division.

But, as individual, LDT is pretty good. The thing here, is just to be conscious about the raw talent and the fact he will learn anything the coaching staff would like to show him (is a medical student).

So, maybe the 5th or 6th round will be a great pick (cause my question mark on the CIS level), but this is really LOW RISK and HIGH REWARD…I think.

i really like this small paragraph “Think back to when Alshon Jeffery, who had some of the same red flags, fell all the way to the second round to the Bears in 2012. I can definitely see Benjamin having the same kind of impact for one of those teams.”

Look at Alshon now!!! we were drooling over his hands last season. I believe Benjamin can be dominate in our offense.

Man, we’re really going to get an interesting prospect at 32 I think – maybe Shazier or Hageman on defense or a WR like Benjamin, Lattimer, Bryant or Moncrief or an Olineman like Moses or Bitonio! I could conceivably get jacked up w/ any of those guys…or JS picks someone totally unexpected! I can’t wait for the draft!

I feel like Coleman College path is a better comaprison to Alshon Jeffery’s. They had very solid seasons, bringing up a lot of 1st round projections. They both had down years as a result of poor QB play, tough schedules, and less than effective offenses. Then when their time came to be drafted the 1st round projections fell to 2nd-3rd round.

No thanks. I finally saw someone articulate my feelings about Coleman, I think it might have been on Field Gulls – his value is strictly as a red line guy since he’s got a poor release and is not crisp or sudden as a route runner at that size. Problem is he’s got questionable ability to make the contested catch, inconsistent focus, and doesn’t seem to have great natural body control. He either fixes those issues and is a dominant downfield one trick pony (which I would point out even we will only use a handful of times per game) or doesn’t and is out if the league in 2-3 seasons.

Worse, reports on his attitude and work ethic have been poor, and some of the things He HAS to fix I would consider uncoachable: you either have elite balance and consistent body awareness or you don’t.

If we’re looking at a high ceiling, boom or bust athletic specimens I much prefer guys like Martavis Bryant, Donte Moncrief, or even Jeff Janis.

The NFL usually hands out their punishments without any regard to team actions. I don’t think they have ever had an action for a bomb threat at an airport. Maybe there is a video they can play at all the team meetings – what not to say to TSA.

Sidney Rice on a one year deal straight off an ACL injury and a future’s contract guy doesn’t rule out anything.

If signing Matt Flynn on a mega contract doesn’t stop this team salivating over a QB prospect and then giving him the start over Flynn, they’re not ruling out receivers at #32 because they re-signed Rice.

Need to find out whether he has any speed or jumping ability first. Rice may still have some rehabbing to do, maybe never will be back in top form. Lets just hope for the best. Likewise lets hope Chris Matthews (who also had a season endinginjury last year) can recover and get back to his old form when he was rookie of the year in the canadian league.

I think we will see a different Rice this season, he has to earn his money now, see how/if that changes his play any. Remember his crazy year in Minnesota, that was harvins 1st season… Hope to see that next season. And it seems like his knee is doing very well

[…] Today he held another pro-day of sorts — running routes and catching balls for 16 minutes in front of 25 teams. Chip Kelly was present from the Eagles — while according to Tony Pauline the 49ers spent “extensive time” with Latimer. Those words were tough to write after seeing the Indiana receiver proudly sporting a Seahawks cap ten days ago. […]

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